Main study taxa

Rearing
Trait measurements
Behavioural observations (direct and video tracking)
Field sampling
Species ID (Western Europe)

Languages

Data analysis

Bayesian & frequentist statistics
Linear models and extensions (Any and all combinations of generalized, mixed, non-linear, or multivariate)
Multivariate ordination and classification
…

Other software

(he/him)

Evolutionary ecologist

Urban ecology and evolution, dispersal ecology

My researches on the causes and consequences of individual-level variation are split along two linked axes:

• the role of trait variation in explaining species’ ability (or inability) to persist in increasingly anthropogenic environments (especially cities)
• the ecology of dispersal, as a key trait bridging ecological and evolutionary dynamics.

I develop these research themes using a combination of lab and outdoor experiments, monitoring in naturalistic contexts and individual-based models.

To go directly to the list of publications click here

Postdoctoral researcher (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow)

Ghent University, Terrestrial Ecology unit

Ghent, Belgium

2023 - 2021

• Evolutionary ecology in cities (HELICITY project)

Postdoctoral researcher

INRAE (formerly INRA), Institut Sophia Agrobiotech

Sophia-Antipolis, France

2021 - 2019

• Range expansions, individual-based modelling
• PI: Dr Elodie Vercken

ATER (fixed-term research and teaching associate)

University of Rennes 1, ECOBIO (Ecosystems, Biodiversity, Evolution)

Rennes, France

2018 - 2016

• Evolutionary ecology in cities, dispersal ecology and evolution

Postdoctoral researcher

Ghent University, Terrestrial Ecology unit

Ghent, Belgium

2016 - 2015

• Behavioural changes in response to urbanisation
• Mentor: Prof. Dries Bonte
• funded by a personal Fyssen Foundation fellowship

Research assistant (PhD student/candidate in Biology)

University of Rennes 1, ECOBIO (Ecosystems, Biodiversity, Evolution)

Rennes, France

2014 - 2011

• PhD thesis (defended Oct. 2014): Individual and environmental drivers of dispersal in a hermaphrodite species, the land snail Cornu aspersum.
• Supervisors: Dr Armelle Ansart, Prof. Luc Madec (Univ. Rennes 1)

ATER (fixed-term research and teaching associate)

University of Rennes 1, ECOBIO (Ecosystems, Biodiversity, Evolution)

Rennes, France

2018 - 2016

'Moniteur’ (teaching assistant)

University of Rennes 1, ECOBIO (Ecosystems, Biodiversity, Evolution)

Rennes, France

2012 - 2011

Courses taught or co-taught in these positions include:

 
Statistics and data science (lectures and practical)
Advanced R for data analysis (1st year of MSc) ~ 20h
Statistical tools, methodologies, and experimental design (2nd year of BSc to 1st year of MSc) ~ 230h
 
Ecology (lab and field)
General ecology (1st year of BSc) ~ 80h
Community ecology (3rd year of BSc and 1st year of MSc) ~ 42h
Spatial ecology (movement ecology; 1st year of MSc) ~ 4h
Ecological bases of vegetal production (3rd year of BSc) ~ 12h
Initiation to GIS (2nd year of BSc) ~ 4h
 
Zoology (lab and field)
Introduction to the diversity of life (1st year of BSc) ~ 30h
Entomology (3rd year of BSc) ~ 40h
Physiology of nutrition, development, growth (3rd year of BSc); ~ 6h

N/A

N/A

co-supervision of 1 PhD student

Experimental evolution
Data synthesis and individual-based modelling

N/A

present - 2020

Supervision of 13 MSc students (1st or 2nd year) and 5 BSc students (1 to 6 months projects)

Field and lab studies of dispersal and behaviour
Data synthesis and individual-based modelling

N/A

present - 2012

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (MSCA-IF)

€166 320

N/A

2023 - 2021

• Project: HELICITY (Evolution of correlated traits in response to city life: helicid snails as windows on the consequences of urban history)

Research grant from the Observatoire des Sciences de l’Univers de Rennes

€1 500

N/A

2018

• Project: Dispersal syndrome evolution and habitat fragmentation
• Collaborators: Julien Pétillon (Univ. Rennes 1), Solène Croci (CNRS)

Fyssen Foundation postdoctoral grant

€24 600

N/A

2016 - 2015

• Project: Behavioural changes in response to urbanisation

Invited speaker, Ateliers À propos

Online science workshop (targeted to 6-12 year olds): invited for a session on snail biology, urban ecology (in French)

N/A

2022

Contributor to the Life in the City : Evolution in an Urbanizing World blog

Discussions of current topics and articles in urban ecology and evolution

N/A

since 2018

Participation to the rotation curation outreach account La Bio au Labo

Archives (in French) here

N/A

2018

La vie au pied de l’immeuble: adaptation et évolution biologique en ville (Life among buildings : adaptation and biological evolution in cities).

Public talk and discussion, Pint of Science

Rennes, France

2017

with Balbi, M.

Individual variation in dispersal, and its sources, shape the fate of pushed vs. pulled range expansions

bioRxiv preprint

N/A

2022

• Dahirel M., Guicharnaud C., Vercken E.

Individual heterogeneity and its importance for metapopulation dynamics

bioRxiv preprint

N/A

2020

• Masier S., Dahirel M., Mortier F., Bonte D.

Dispersal syndromes in challenging environments: a cross-species experiment

Ecology Letters, 25(12): 2675-2687

N/A

2022

• Cote J., Dahirel M., Schtickzelle N., Altermatt F., Ansart A., Blanchet S., Chaine A., De Laender F., De Raedt J., Haegeman B., Jacob S., Kaltz O., Laurent E., Little C., Madec L., Manzi F., Masier S., Pellerin F., Pennekamp F., Therry L., Vong A., Winandy L., Bonte D., Fronhofer E., Legrand, D.

Morph-dependent nematode infection and its association with host movement in the land snail Cepaea nemoralis (Mollusca, Gastropoda)

Journal of Zoology, 318(3): 191-192

N/A

2022

• Dahirel M., Proux M., Gérard C., Ansart A.

Global urban environmental change drives adaptation in white clover

Science, 375(6586): 1275-1281

N/A

2022

• Santangelo J. S. et al. (the Global Urban Evolution project, 287 authors)

Dispersal syndrome and landscape fragmentation in the salt-marsh specialist spider Erigone longipalpis

Current Zoology, in press

N/A

2022

• Dahirel M., Wullschleger M., Berry T., Croci S., Pétillon J.

Landscape connectivity alters the evolution of density-dependent dispersal during pushed range expansions

bioRxiv preprint, peer-reviewed and recommended by Peer Community In Evolutionary Biology

N/A

2021

• Dahirel M., Bertin A., Calcagno V., Duraj C., Fellous S., Groussier G., Lombaert E., Mailleret L., Marchand A., Vercken E.

Boldness and exploration are linked to shell morph but not environmental contexts in the snail Cepaea nemoralis

Ethology, 127(4):321-333

N/A

2021

• Dahirel M., Gaudu V., Ansart A.

Shifts from pulled to pushed range expansions caused by reduction of landscape connectivity

Oikos, 130(5): 708-725

N/A

2021

• Dahirel M., Bertin A., Haond M., Blin A., Lombaert E., Calcagno V., Fellous S., Mailleret L., Malausa T., Vercken E.
• preprint version peer-reviewed and recommended by Peer Community In Evolutionary Biology

Increased population density depresses activity but does not influence emigration in the snail Pomatias elegans

Journal of Zoology, 313(3):172-181

N/A

2021

• Dahirel M., Menut L. Ansart A.

Transdisciplinary Bioblitz: Rapid biotic and abiotic inventory allows studying environmental changes over 60 years at the Biological Field Station of Paimpont (Brittany, France) and opens new interdisciplinary research opportunities

Biodiversity Data Journal, 8: e50451

N/A

2020

• Nicolai A., Guernion M., Guillocheau S., Hoeffner K., Le Gouar P., Ménard N., Piscart C., Vallet D., Hervé M., Benezeth E., Chedanne H., Blémus J., Vernon P., Cylly D., Hotte H., Loïs G., Mai B., Perez G., Ouisse T., Monard C., Wiegand C., Caudal J.-P., Butet A., Dahirel M., Barbe L., Balbi M., Briand V., Bormans M., Charrier M., Bouger G., Jung V., Le Lann C., Pannard A., Pétillon J., Rantier Y., Marguerie D., Tougeron K., Devogel P., Dugravot S., Dubos T., Garrin M., Carnet M., Gouraud C., Chambet A., Esnault J., Poupelin M., Welk E., Bütof A., Dubois G., Humbert G., Marie-Réau O., Norvez O., Richard G., Froger B., Rochais C., Potthoff M., Ayati K., Bellido A., Rissel A., Santonja M., Farcy J.-O., Collias E., Sene L., Cluzeau D., Supper R.

Brachylaima spp. (Trematoda) parasitizing Cornu aspersum (Gastropoda) in France with potential risk for human consumption

Parasite, 27: 15

N/A

2020

• Gérard C., Ansart A., Decanter N., Martin M.-C., Dahirel M.

Urbanization drives cross-taxon declines in abundance and diversity at multiple spatial scales

Global Change Biology, 26(3): 1196–1211

N/A

2020

• Piano E., Souffreau C., Merckx T., Baardsen L.F., Backeljau T., Bonte D., Brans K.I., Cours M., Dahirel M., Debortoli N., Decaestecker E., De Wolf K., Engelen J.M.T., Fontaneto D., Gianuca A.T., Govaert L., Hanashiro F.T.T., Higuti J., Lens L., Martens K., Matheve H., Matthysen E., Pinseel E., Sablon R., Schön I., Stoks R., Van Doninck K., Van Dyck H., Vanormelingen P., Van Wichelen J., Vyverman W., De Meester L., Hendrickx F.

The distinct phenotypic signatures of dispersal and stress in an arthropod model: from physiology to life history

Journal of Experimental Biology, 222(16): jeb203596

N/A

2019

• Dahirel M.*, Masier S.*, Renault D., Bonte D. (* contributed equally to the work)

Dispersers are more likely to follow mucus trails in the land snail Cornu aspersum

The Science of Nature, 106: 43

N/A

2019

• Vong A., Ansart A., Dahirel M.

Urbanization‐driven changes in web building and body size in an orb web spider

Journal of Animal Ecology, 88(1): 79–91

N/A

2019

• Dahirel M., De Cock M., Vantieghem P., Bonte D.

Bottom-up and top-down control of dispersal across major organismal groups: a coordinated distributed experiment

Nature Ecology and Evolution, 2: 1859–1863

N/A

2018

• Fronhofer E.A., Legrand D., Altermatt F., Ansart A., Blanchet S., Bonte D., Chaine A., Dahirel M., De Laender F., De Raedt J., di Gesu L., Jacob S., Kaltz O., Laurent E., Little C.J., Madec L., Manzi F., Masier S., Pellerin F., Pennekamp F., Schtickzelle N., Therry L., Vong A., Winandy L., Cote J.

Body size shifts in aquatic and terrestrial urban communities

Nature, 558: 113–116

N/A

2018

• Merckx T., Souffreau C., Kaiser A., Baardsen L.F., Backeljau T., Bonte D., Brans K. I., Cours M., Dahirel M., Debortoli N., De Wolf K., Engelen J.M.T., Fontaneto D., Gianuca A., Govaert L., Hendrickx F., Higuti J., Lens L., Martens K., Matheve H., Matthysen E., Piano E., Sablon R., Schön I., Van Doninck K., De Meester L., Van Dyck H.

Kin competition accelerates experimental range expansion in an arthropod herbivore

Ecology Letters, 21(2): 225–234

N/A

2018

• Van Petegem K., Moerman F., Dahirel M., Fronhofer E.A., Vandegehuchte M.L., Van Leeuwen T., Wybouw N., Stoks R., Bonte D.

Individual boldness is life stage-dependent and linked to dispersal in a hermaphrodite land snail

Ecological Research, 32(5): 751–755

N/A

2017

• Dahirel M., Vong A., Ansart A., Madec L.

Intraspecific variation shapes community-level behavioral responses to urbanization in spiders

Ecology, 98(9): 2379–2390

N/A

2017

• Dahirel M., Dierick J., De Cock M., Bonte D.

Dispersal: a central and independent trait in life-history

Oikos, 126(4): 472–479

N/A

2017

• Bonte D., Dahirel M.

Dispersal-related traits of the snail Cornu aspersum along an urbanisation gradient: maintenance of mobility across life stages despite high costs

Urban Ecosystems, 19(4): 1847–1859

N/A

2016

• Dahirel M.*, Séguret A.* , Ansart A., Madec L. (* contributed equally to the work)

Density-dependence across dispersal stages in a hermaphrodite land snail: insights from discrete choice models

Oecologia, 181(4): 1117–1128

N/A

2016

• Dahirel M., Vardakis M., Ansart A, Madec L.

Potential syndromes linking dispersal and reproduction in the hermaphrodite land snail Cornu aspersum

Journal of Zoology, 299(2): 98–105

N/A

2016

• Dahirel M., Ansart A., Madec L.

Context-dependence of the olfactory perceptual range in the generalist land snail Cornu aspersum

Canadian Journal of Zoology, 93(8): 665–669

N/A

2015

• Dahirel M., Cholé H., Séguret A., Madec L., Ansart A.

Movement propensity and ability correlate with ecological specialization in European land snails: comparative analysis of a dispersal syndrome

Journal of Animal Ecology, 84(1): 228–238

N/A

2015

• Dahirel M., Olivier E., Guiller A., Martin M.-C., Madec L., Ansart A.
• featured in the Movement Ecology Virtual Issue

Stage- and weather-dependent dispersal in the brown garden snail Cornu aspersum

Population Ecology, 56(1): 227–237

N/A

2014

• Dahirel M., Ansart A, Madec L.

Multivariate effects of urbanisation on an anthropophilic land snail, Cornu aspersum

SFE² - GFÖ - EEF joint meeting

Metz, France

2022

• Dahirel M., De Wolf K., De Tombeur Y., Ansart A., Gérard C., Bonte D.

Pushed to the edge: dispersal restriction shapes eco-evolutionary dynamics of micro-wasp range expansions.

Annual Meeting of the British Ecological Society

Belfast, UK

2019

• Dahirel M., Bertin A., Calcagno V., Fellous S., Lombaert E., Mailleret L., Vercken E.

Body size constraints and behavioural adaptations to city life: a case study in the spider Araneus diadematus.

Ecology Across Borders, joint conference of the BES, GfÖ and NeCoV

Ghent, Belgium

2017

• Dahirel M., De Cock M., Bonte D.
• “Eco-evolutionary dynamics in an urbanised world” symposium, invited symposium talk

Metabolic dispersal syndromes and response to stress in spider mites

“Dispersal – Connecting networks”, EVENET Movement and Dispersal conference

Ghent, Belgium

2017

• Dahirel M., Masier S., Renault D., Bonte D.

Behavioural responses of arachnids to urbanisation: the role of intra- and inter-specific variation

16th conference of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology

Exeter, UK

2016

• Dahirel M., Dierick J., Bonte D.

Habitat specialization and movement characteristics in European helicoid land snails: implications for dispersal and foraging strategies

9th “Ecology & Behaviour” SERL meeting

Strasbourg, France

2013

• Dahirel M., Olivier E., Madec L., Ansart A.

Dispersal strategies in the land snail Cornu aspersum: sex-biased dispersal in a hermaphroditic species?

8th “Ecology & Behaviour” SERL meeting

Chizé, France

2012

• Dahirel M., Ansart A., Madec L.

Orb-web spider responses to city life: Species replacement, phenotypic changes and consequences for ecosystem functioning

67th meeting of the Entomological Society of America

St Louis, USA

2019

• Dahirel M., Dierick J. De Cock M., Bonte D.
• remotely presented

Studying the interplay between dispersal behavior and reproduction in hermaphrodites, using land snails as models

15th conference of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology

New York, USA

2014

• Dahirel M., Ansart A., Madec L.

How does habitat specialization influence dispersal? A comparative approach in European land snails

Movement and Dispersal International Conference

Aberdeen, UK

2013

• Dahirel M., Olivier E., Guiller A., Martin M.-C., Madec L., Ansart A.

Slow but sure: stage-dependent dispersal in the brown garden snail Cornu aspersum

Causes and Consequences of Organism Dispersal

Lund, Sweden

2013

• Dahirel M., Ansart A., Madec L.

An introduction to Bayesian data analysis using Stan.

Ecology Across Borders, joint conference of the BES, GfÖ and NeCoV

Ghent, Belgium

2017

• Hertzog L., Dahirel M.

MSc in Evolutionary, Behavioural and Functional Ecology

University of Rennes 1

Rennes, France

2011 - 2009

BSc in Organismal Biology

University of Rennes 1

Rennes, France

2009 - 2006